Eamon Scanlon (Sligo-Leitrim, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I am glad to have an opportunity to speak on this Bill, which I genuinely hope will deliver immediate improvements and legislative protections for adults and children accessing acute mental health services. I am appealing to the Minister for Health, Deputy Harris, and the Government to address waiting times, in particular for child and adolescent mental health services. We need increased staffing urgently. There are currently 480 children on the child and adult mental health service, CAMHS, waiting list in the community health care organisation area one, some 87 of whom are priority cases. There is one specialised child psychiatrist in the region who is working 24 hours a week - a retired person. We are lucky that this person is there to deal with these priority cases. Despite his best efforts, he has only seen around 40 children, which really and truly is not fair.

I met six parents last Saturday who have children waiting for these type of services. I understand that doctors had been instructed not to refer any more children because they do not have the staff to deal with them. I know there are ongoing efforts to recruit a full-time psychiatrist, and there is difficulty right across the country on this issue. Whether the pay structure needs to be looked at or something else, something has to happen very soon on this matter. There is no doubt that the area is not given sufficient priority. The families I met are frustrated and at their wit's end. They are under severe pressure. All they want is a roadmap as to where they go, whether that is A, B, C or D. These families cannot even get to stage A, when their children are referred. As the Minister of State knows, unless the children are referred, they do not progress to the next stage. That is the way it is, unfortunately, in the area that I represent. I implore the Minister of State to see what can be done to have these children assessed and to try to help and support these parents, because they are definitely at their wit's end at this point in time.

Every day I hear from family members who are finding it difficult to access mental health services. Despite some excellent services and dedicated staff, the supports are sporadic and not always fit for purpose. There is a prevalence of mental health difficulties in Ireland and we need to start acting on implementing international best practice. Two weeks ago, I was contacted by a friend, a parent who spent 12 hours in Sligo with her child, a 13 year old who was suicidal and who had been systematically failed over a year of self-harm events. It is very hard to stand over anything like this. The next day, the woman and her daughter, bearing a letter saying she needed a bed for assessment, spent a similar time in Galway accident and emergency unit and was turned away. There are no beds for children at the moment in need of psychiatric inpatient help. There are no beds in the whole area. This is what is happening on the ground. I implore the Minister of State to try to deal with these issues. It is not just in my area, but nationally. We should try to understand the hurt and annoyance these parents feel, and the stress they are under. I could see that in my clinic last Saturday when I met these parents. Regardless of cost, this needs to be addressed and addressed urgently.

See this speech in context